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Embedded finance: key considerations for funders of platform borrowers
Embedded finance is, broadly, the availability of financial products, integrated into a company’s infrastructure, provided by non-financial institutions and capitalised by “traditional” financial institutions. Companies are providing these products directly to their own customers, cutting out financial institutions as intermediaries. The benefits of these technology driven products for end-users are efficiency of transactions and bundling complementary services to enhance customer experience (eg point of sale buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) credit).
1 SEP 2022Embedded finance: revenue-based financing and responsible lending
The unique selling point of embedded finance is customer convenience; described by consultancy firm 11:FS as financial products offered to customers “at the point of customer need”. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), embedded lending such as revenue-based financing (RBF) provides an alternative means for funding with many benefits, including, ease of application, greater speed to funding and automated credit decisions produced using data sources and analytics. However, against the current economic outlook there is a tension between speed and robust lending practices that protect vulnerable customers, including those in financial difficulty. With the spotlight on business to consumer buy-now-pay-later (B2C BNPL) in terms of UK regulatory oversight, what steps do RBF providers need to take to deliver a responsible lending solution?
1 MAR 2023Embedded finance: Dear CEO
In March (2023) 3 JIBFL 190, we discussed some of the challenges in providing sustainable finance products to consumers from the perspective of revenue-based finance; an embedded finance offering. Namely, there is a balance to strike between: (i) speed and automation; and (ii) positive customer outcomes. On 16 March 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a Dear CEO letter (Letter), addressed to payment firms supervised by the FCA within its payments portfolio, highlighting concerns that certain payment firms are not currently striking this balance. For embedded finance, the Letter will primarily impact providers that offer embedded banking services (if they are supervised payment firms), but it may have a wider impact across the industry.
1 JUN 2023Embedded finance: market challenges and market changes
In September ((2022) 8 JIBFL 560) we outlined that embedded finance is the availability of financial products, integrated into a company’s infrastructure, provided by non-financial institutions (platform lenders) and capitalised by “traditional” financial institutions. One of the benefits of embedded finance is an enhanced customer experience. This customer-led approach will become more important in the current and forecast economic environment. COVID-19 drove a change in consumer habits and demands and saw record valuations for fintechs. However, as the world economy faces an increasingly challenging outlook, there has been a so-called “rebalancing” of these high valuations. In July 2022 credit card transactions by UK cardholders were up by nearly 10% on last year (UK Finance) and global e-commerce revenues are forecast to shrink for 2022. Does this signal trouble ahead for embedded finance?
1 DEC 2022
